Key points
1Jesus entered the wilderness full of and led by the Spirit, not by accident but by design.
Pastor Pat sets up Luke 4 by explaining that Jesus had just been baptized and publicly identified as the Messiah for the first time after thirty hidden years in Nazareth. Verse one says Jesus was full of the Spirit and led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and Pastor Pat has the church circle both words, noting the audience should hold onto that sequence for later.
2Three times Satan tempted a physically exhausted Jesus, and three times Jesus answered with Scripture, not His own reasoning.
After forty days of fasting, hungry and weak, Jesus faces three temptations from the devil, and each time He responds with 'it is written,' quoting Scripture as His weapon. Pastor Pat points out that even Satan quotes Scripture in the third temptation, showing the enemy is smart and twists the Word, but Jesus still answers with Scripture correctly applied.
3Jesus came out of the wilderness filled with the Holy Spirit's power, completing the sequence Spirit, Word, power.
Pastor Pat draws attention to the bookends of the story: Jesus goes in full of and led by the Spirit, uses the Word in every temptation, and comes out filled with the Spirit's power, with His reputation spreading through the region. He credits Tony Evans' line that if the living Word needed the written Word to defeat the enemy, how much more do we need it, and has the church respond the way Evans' church would.
if the living word needed the written word to defeat the enemy of the word, how much more do you and I need the word of God
Illustration
Doctor Tony Evans's statement: 'If the living word needed the written word to defeat the enemy of the word, how much more do you and I need the word of God?'
4All Scripture is breathed out by God and useful to teach, correct, and direct us, so reading it is like hearing God speak directly to us.
Working through 2 Timothy 3:16, Pastor Pat stresses the word 'all' — all Scripture, not just parts, comes from God and is useful for teaching truth and correcting what's wrong. He connects this to the longing many of us have felt to hear God speak audibly or write on a wall, pointing out that God has already spoken that way, in the Bible we hold and often neglect.
5The Spirit and the Word are more powerful together than either alone, like a two-person crosscut saw.
Using the picture of an old two-man logging saw, Pastor Pat shows that one person can use it alone but it is far more effective with two working in tandem. He applies this to a personal story of a troubled teenage boy he mentored, where he knew two biblical principles — reaping what you sow and grace — but had to ask the Spirit which one the boy needed that day, since the Spirit will never contradict the Word and the Word will never contradict the Spirit.
Grace is getting something that you don't deserve
Illustration
A two-person crosscut saw used to illustrate the combined power of the Spirit and the Word
A story from life
The speaker's father using a two-man crosscut saw alone in rural Montana
A story from life
A troubled student with an abusive background who missed an assignment, prompting the speaker to seek the Spirit's guidance on whether to apply grace or consequences
6The excuses that the Bible is boring or untrustworthy don't hold up.
Pastor Pat answers the 'boring' excuse by comparing Bible reading to exercise, something not always exciting but healthy long term, and by urging people to read Scripture as if standing in the sandals of the people in the story, like the disciples seeing Jesus walk on water or Lazarus walking out of his tomb. He answers the 'can't trust it' excuse by pointing to the Bible's unmatched historical and textual evidence, an archaeological find confirming a minor figure from 2 Kings, and the roughly 2,500 of 2,700 biblical prophecies already fulfilled.
“the spirit of God will never ever ever ever contradict the word of God, and the word of God will never ever ever contradict the spirit of God, because the word of God was written by the spirit of God”
be skeptical of your skepticism
It's as if God were speaking to you and me
Illustration
A prisoner in a communist country who found a torn, soiled page of Romans in a latrine waste basket, wept over it, memorized it, and passed it to fellow prisoners
Application
Pastor Pat's challenge is to take thirty days and let God help you fall in love with His Word again.
Commit thirty days to Scripture
Carve out time every day for thirty days to read the Bible, whether it's a proverb matching the day of the month, one of the gospels, or the book of Esther.
Put yourself in the sandals of the story
Read Bible narratives by imagining yourself present in them, the way the disciples experienced Jesus walking on water or the crowd saw Lazarus walk out of his tomb, so the text comes alive instead of feeling routine.
Ask God to teach you as you read
Before or during your reading time, pray and ask God to teach you from His Word and make it come alive, rather than treating it as just another book.
Let the Spirit and Word work together
Don't rely on the Word alone or the Spirit alone; ask the Spirit to show you what a passage means for your specific situation, trusting He will never contradict what Scripture says.
Take it into your week
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